Inspector Rose - Rise of the Phoenix
by ohmoveoveralohomora
Summary: Ever wondered what happened to all the loose ends after Harry's story ended? Enter Rose Weasley, magic extraordinaire, logic addict and probably the most promising witch Hogwarts has seen since her own mother, Head of Magical Law Enforcement Hermione Weasley. When Rose meets a mourning Fawkes she takes it upon herself to help the phoenix (and maybe even herself) along the way.
1. Prologue: An Unexpected Saviour

The view from Gryffindor Tower was as picturesque as any in Hogwarts castle. On this sunny Sunday afternoon in late April, the grounds sparkled, a green carpet stretching between the Quidditch pitch and the Whomping Willow. Tiny dots scattered across the grass, students enjoying the rare day of pleasant weather as they mercifully forgot the piles of homework awaiting them back in their common rooms.

One such girl could not forget, however.

Rose Weasley sat hunched over at a gnarled desk in the corner of the tower, back turned to the tempting scene outside. Her quill scratched relentlessly at the parchment spread before her, adding length inch by inch to the frustrating Potions essay. Despite it not being due until Wednesday afternoon, Rose simply couldn't relax with her friends with it looming in the back of her mind.

'Just two more paragraphs.' This was to herself - not a single Gryffindor remained indoors and the common room was entirely empty.

At this moment, disembodied footsteps sounded almost inaudibly across the carpeted floor. If the red-haired girl had not been so engrossed in her work she might have noticed, but as it was she remained ignorant.

If she had not been writing with her nose quite so close to the parchment, she may have seen a tiny brown dot appear to float in the air mere feet away from her desk. She may have correctly deduced that this was the very tip of a dark-wooded wand. She might even have prevented its owner (concealed under a well-known invisibility cloak) from casting his carefully considered spell.

As it was, Rose Weasley noticed none of this.

She assumed that it was simply a gust of wind which snatched her mostly-complete essay from beneath her hands and into the air, and not a deft levitation charm. As one might in the situation, she leaned out to catch it, but found it rather out of reach as she wobbled precariously on her chair.

As the stood up to chase it, the hidden wizard flicked his wand to float the parchment swiftly towards the conveniently open window. Seeing her essay rise out of her limited reach, Rose pulled out her wand to Summon it.

'Accio parchment!' Unbeknownst to her, this charm - however useful in normal circumstances - would not serve to counteract the levitation which already kept a hold of her writing. With a gasp from the redhead, the essay tumbled out into the sunshine and tumbled over the students lazing on the grass below.

'Merlin's starry hat!' Her wand having failed her, Rose took no time in racing out of the portrait hole in pursuit of the parchment, leaving the cloaked figure to chuckle in amusement.

* * *

Outside, a gangly teenager whisked out his wand and captured the flailing piece of homework with his own levitation charm, guiding it further and further away from the castle. Glancing down at a small mirror in his hand, he grinned at his reflection as it morphed into the face of a smirking boy with impossibly messy, black hair.

'Got it, James,' the boy grinned back.

'Nice job, Fred.' Fred stowed the mirror in the pocket of his jeans and turned towards the entrance to the Great Hall to see a frantic girl rushing out across the grass, her startlingly red hair flying everywhere as she wove her way between the groups of students. The girl glanced in his direction, and he held his wand casually behind his back while still maintaining the levitation charm.

'Time to get this show on the road,' Fred whispered, and the parchment sped towards the Forbidden Forest, the girl following behind on the ground.

* * *

Rose stomped though the Forest, slightly torn parchment in hand, a murderous look on her face.

'James Sirius Potter, I'm going to kill you if you had anything to do with this,' she muttered, snarling under her breath. The sky was already beginning to darken as she followed her wand, which was spinning like a compass in her palm, towards the castle.

Hoofbeats sounded from behind her, and Rose tried to calm her heavy breathing.

'It's okay,' she whispered shakily. 'The castle can't be far.' She definitely didn't want to meet up with a pack of centaurs in the middle of the Forbidden Forest. Rose knew they could be prickly at the best of times, but if they found a witch wandering through their territory things were not going to end well.

What with her nerves so on end at the thought of encountering any of the creatures that inhabited the Forest, Rose was embarrassed to admit that she came frighteningly close to letting loose a blood-curdling scream at the blaze of fire which materialised in front of her. Her eyes were filled with a flash of orange and yellow even after the light dissipated, and she blinked to clear her vision.

Before her, only a couple of feet tall and even more insignificant in the Forest than Rose herself, stood a phoenix.

Its feathers were perfectly groomed, lying flush against the bird's body and curling out artistically at the ends, and its tail plumage was a wonder to be seen. The phoenix's eyes were a shiny black, and Rose was reminded of onyx as the magical creature surveyed her intelligently.

'P-please don't hurt me,' Rose said, shivering. It did not cross her mind at this point that the worst this phoenix could do to her, aside from pecking her eyes out with its (rather curved though not exceedingly sharp) beak, would be to spontaneously combust and hope Rose became caught in the ensuing flames.

The phoenix seemed to humour her, however, and somehow managed to bow its head in a reassuring manner. With this, Rose was able to calm herself and resume a state of mind that Hermione Granger-Weasley would be proud of. Upon logically thinking through her predicament, she realised that the mysterious phoenix might well be her metaphorical ticket out of here, if she could somehow manage to reason with a class XXXXX magical creature.

'I don't suppose you would be able to assist me in getting back to the castle?' Rose pointedly maintained eye contact with the bird, carefully keeping her body language non-threatening and unaggressive.

After a long moment in which the air pressed down upon Rose as if it were laden with lead, the phoenix stepped forward and proffered a scaly leg to her. Rose took a secure hold of it without a moment's hesitation - if she gave the bird any reason to think she was a threat, she feared it would simply take off into the air and leave her stranded once again. Upon further reflection, Rose recalled one of her uncle's stories in which he met Dumbledore's phoenix in one of his adventures, and this situation seemed familiar somehow ...

For the second time that day, Rose very nearly screamed to high hell as she was lifted off of the ground and through the twig-filled canopy (she received rather more scratches than one might expect under the circumstances). Clinging tightly to the phoenix's foot, Rose screwed her eyes shut to avoid glaring down at the ground, which was already far too far away.

Rose never had liked flying, even on a broom.

On being returned to solid ground, Rose gave a what she hoped was inaudible sigh and pried her fingers from the phoenix's claws. They were on the edge of the lake, and it would be quite a long walk back to the castle, but she definitely wasn't about to complain.

'Thank you,' she nodded to the bird, surprised to find herself slightly breathless from her flying experience. Another thought flickered across her swirling mind. 'Do - do you have a name?' Almost instantly, Rose felt like slamming her palm to her forehead. How was the phoenix supposed to answer her?

However, a scaly claw began to scratch a groove in the loose dirt under their feet. Rose watched, unblinking, as letters were formed before her eyes.

_Fawkes._

'Thank you, Fawkes - ' she turned back to look at the phoenix, but it - _he _\- had already taken off into the evening sky. Rose smiled, a small twitch of her lips.

'I'll say hi to Professor Dumbledore's portrait for you.'


	2. Chapter 1

Rose paused before knocking on the headmistress' office door. She wasn't really sure that she should be doing this. After all, a painting could never replace a real person. However, she had promised Fawkes - and so she had to follow through with it. She tapped her knuckles gently on the door and the door swung open to reveal Professor McGonagall seated at her writing desk, peering through her reading glasses in almost the same way that the old, bearded man in the painting behind her surveyed Rose.

"What may I help you with, Miss Weasley?" McGonagall asked her. Rose's eyes flickered to the wizened man's portrait, then back to the headmistress.

"I - I want - needed to speak to Professor Dumbledore," she tripped over her words. Professor McGonagall folded up her glasses slowly and placed them next to the parchment she had been writing on.

"You do realise, Miss Weasley, that Professor Dumbledore's painting is not really him, don't you?" Rose nodded silently. Her eyes glanced up to Dumbledore's portrait again, and she flushed.

"It's just, Professor, I mean ... I met Fawkes the other day," she finished. Professor McGonagall expressed her surprise with her trademark raising of one eyebrow.

"You met ... Fawkes?" She questioned.

"Yes, I got lost in the Forest - one of James' practical jokes," she added at Professor McGonagall's disapproving stare. "And Fawkes came and flew me back to the castle. And. - well, I promised that I'd tell Dumbledore that I'd seen him. Fawkes, that is," she coughed.

McGonagall turned around to face Dumbledore's portrait, and at his almost imperceptible wink, said to Rose,

"Very well. I have a letter to post, so I'll give you five minutes." Rose smiled.

"Thank you, Professor." Professor McGonagall inclined her head slightly and swept out of the room, letter in hand. Rose stepped tentatively towards Dumbledore, who smiled at her encouragingly.

"You are very much like your mother," he said after a few moments.

"Thank you," replied Rose. "About Fawkes ... " she trailed off.

"Yes," Dumbledore said slowly. "I believe he is very lonely." A small furrow appeared between his brows.

"Excuse me sir, but couldn't he come here?" But Rose knew as soon as she said it that it wouldn't be possible. It was clear in the former headmaster's face. "I just wish I could do something," she sighed, but Dumbledore beamed.

"And you can, Miss Weasley," he said encouragingly. "No one had seen Fawkes for twenty years until now. But he chose to help you, and I think, if you are cautious, he may come to trust you."

Dumbledore fingered his beard thoughtfully. "You may even find a companion in him. Phoenixes are renowned for their loyalty - once earned they are unwavering. The trick is to get them to trust you," he winked at Rose. She blinked, then started as the door handle clicked - Professor McGonagall was back. Rose turned to face Dumbledore again.

"Thank you, Professor," she said. The former headmaster's eyes twinkled. Rose turned to go, and just before she was out of earshot she thought she heard the portrait whisper, "Good luck."


	3. Chapter 2

Rose didn't fly. She might occasionally be coerced into playing Quidditch in the garden with the rest of the many Potters and Weasleys, but that didn't mean she enjoyed it - or was particularly good at actually moving on the broom. But if she was going to find Fawkes in the Forbidden Forest again she was going to have to fly, no matter how much she sucked at it.

It didn't improve matters that she'd had to borrow James' broom as Hugo didn't have one yet and Albus was nowhere to be found. Of course, James taunted her and wanted to know why Rose wanted a broom in the first place, and she'd had to say that she wanted to practice flying, which led to more jibes and taunts. But she was here, and if she crashed and broke the broom, well at least it was James'.

_Ok, Rose, deep breath_, she told herself. _Kick off from the ground gently, keep balanced, look where you want to go and don't panic._

Rose had always been quietly proud of her strong will and determination - which almost always _madie_ up for lack of talent for the few things she found difficult - and it served her well here. Though she had a few minor mishaps, she was soon moving at a reasonable pace above the Forest. She might have even been able to enjoy herself - but Rose knew better than to let her concentration lapse when she was a staggering number of feet above the ground.

Rose moved above the canopy systematically, searching for any sign of the grieving phoenix. It was about half an hour into her expedition that she noticed a flash of orange that contrasted against the dark green-grey of the treetops.

Carefully, Rose began her descent, angling down slightly and circling around her planned landing point. She landed gently on on of the uppermost branches and quickly dismounted before scrambling down the thick trunk of the tree.

It was a relief to be on solid ground after what had seemed ages, and Rose sighed as her feet touched the mossy forest floor. She glanced around, keeping her body completely still, and called out softly,

"Fawkes?" she paused, listening hopefully for any type of response.

"I - I talked to Professor Dumbledore." She thought that she might have heard a rustling, but it was probably just wishful thinking. "Do you want me to tell you what he said?" Rose waited patiently, and with much effort refrained from jumping when Fawkes flew down from the canopy.

Trying to steady her breathing, Rose said, "I think Professor Dumbledore hoped that - that we might spend some time together?" she finished almost questioningly.

When Fawkes made no attempt to leave, Rose kept talking. She told Fawkes about her journey there, and about James, and all her cousins, and the Potters and the Weasleys. She made no move towards him, though - she felt it was too early. Finally, she finished by giving him a piece of piece of sugared peach - the closest thing she could find in the Hogwarts kitchens to the preferred food of phoenixes - tropical fruit.

"I'll come back next weekend, okay? If I can get a broom, that is." Rose made a mental note to find a way to get to Fawkes without having to borrow someone's broom each week. "And I'll come here, so if you want to talk, just come - same time, same day." Then waving goodbye, she clambered back up a tree and took off over the Forest towards the castle.

_I could get used to flying_, she thought, as the wind ruffled her hair. Then she lost control of the broom for a second and fell a few feet before she could correct herself. _On second thoughts, _she thought ruefully, _maybe not._


	4. Chapter 3

Rose froze on the last step if the staircase leading up to the boys' dormitories. Someone was walking past the portrait whole and she would have bet a handful of Galleons that it was Filch.

She wasn't sure if he could get into the Gryffindor common room anyway, but she certainly didn't want him raising the alarm; nocturnal wrongdoers at Hogwarts all dreaded Filch's cry of "Students out of bed!".

Rose stood immobile for a few seconds as the footsteps echoed further down the hall and eventually the common room returned to its eerily silent state. Nimbly, she crept into the boys' dorm and headed straight for James' bed.

She'd asked Lily earlier if she could borrow the Potters' invisibility cloak, but her cousin had told Rose that it was currently in James' possession and wouldn't let even his siblings near it.

Rose needed the cloak to be able to get through the Forest and visit Fawkes safely, as flying wasn't a very practical option with Rose's dubious skills, but she'd been banking on the fact that Lily would be able to get it for her. It had been Lily who had suggested and given Rose permission to 'acquire the cloak by any means possible', and so now here she was, sneaking into the boys' dorm to 'borrow' the cloak - though she'd probably give it to Lily as it seemed that James was hogging it - and she knew that it certainly wasn't what Uncle Harry would have had in mind when he gave the cloak to James.

Rose crept ever so carefully towards James' sleeping figure, and when she reached his bed she knelt down and pointed her wand at his trunk.

"Alohomora!" she whispered, though she didn't think James was so thick as to leave the cloak in an unbewitched trunk - he was in sixth year, after all. So Rose was unsurprised when the trunk failed to open, and so she cast another spell which she had devised herself which had counteracted any bewitchment she had come across so far. She cheered a little in her head when the lock made an almost inaudible click and the lid lifted slowly.

Hardly containing her excitement, Rose lifted the silky cloak out of the trunk, swept it over herself, and resealed the trunk.

She was halfway to the staircase when she heard James whisper incredulously, "Rose?" Again, she stood stock still, her muscles tense and heart pounding. How could he have seen her? She was sure he had been asleep.

"Scorp can't be serious. He's not going anywhere near my cousin, Al." Rose breathed a sigh as she realised that James was, in fact, sleep talking. But what in Merlin's name was he on about? "I mean, come on, Al. Rose and Scorp? Uncle Ron would kill them, and us for good measure!"

Rose's eyes widened as she put the pieces together. If what James was saying was true, Scorpius Malfoy was ... interested in her! Al was good friends with Scorpius, even though Al was in Gryffindor and Malfoy was in Slytherin - though James wasn't quite as friendly because Malfoy was Seeker for the Slytherin quidditch team and had been known to beat the Gryffindors - in which James was Chaser - but James didn't hate Malfoy, not like Rose's dad did.

It was crazy, anyway; she didn't even like Malfoy, James might not even be right, and Malfoy was probably just messing around anyway. Not to mention how her dad would react - but Rose wouldn't let her dad's prejudices stop her from doing what she wanted if that was the case anyway.

Finally, Rose realised that she'd been standing in the doorway for nearly five minutes, and scurried down the staircase. When she reached her own dorm she carefully crawled back into bed and stowed the cloak in a compartment beneath the mattress which Rose had bewitched herself with the strongest enchantments she knew.

Closing her eyes, she banished all thoughts of Malfoy, Albus and James from her mind and settled to visit Fawkes the next day.


	5. Chapter 4

Three months had passed since Rose has first met Fawkes, and she'd visited him every week using the invisibility cloak to hide her from the less-than-friendly centaurs and downright terrifying Acromantula.

Fawkes had improved over that time, and become a lot more sociable - he had even flown her back to the edge of the lake last time, though only after she had promised him that there would be no one there. But underneath, the Phoenix was still mourning the loss of his companion, and Rose just didn't think that her ever get over it.

That was why she was trying a new solution. Even though Professor Dumbledore's portrait had told her that it would be even more heartbreaking for Fawkes to see his master but not being able to be with him, Rose was figuring out a way to do just that. It wasn't really going against what the Professor had said, Rose told herself.

What she was doing was trying to get Fawkes into Dumbledore's portrait. Any portrait would do really, as the portraits could all visit each other inside Hogwarts, but it made more sense to do it in the former Headmaster's portrait if possible. But first Rose had to figure out how to get something into a painting.

She'd been to the library and read up on as much as she could about magical paintings. There wasn't an awful lot, as it was a highly specialised branch of magic. She was able to learn which enchantments painters put on their portraits to give them the characteristics of the people they were portraying, and how they worked.

There was one crucial spell that the books had mentioned but not had any detailed information on, and it was the spell that really animated the portrait - and getting Fawkes into the painting alive was pretty important.

Thanks to the many logs that the Hogwarts library kept, it had taken Rose four hours to find the book she was looking for - and even then it was only the title: 'The Many Intricacies of Successful Portrait Painting and the Mastery of Painting Animation' by Karacticus Adspargo.

For the first time in her life, the library did not have what Rose was looking for.

Her first instinct, after recovering from the shock of this realisation, was to send an owl to her mum to see if she owned a copy or had heard of the book. Her mum had written back saying that she hadn't heard of the book before, but had used the extensive Ministry of Magic records to find that there were only a few copies in circulation.

Her mum had then suggested that Rose ask a rare book collector - she believed that Draco Malfoy, Scorpius' father, had one of the largest and oldest collections of books in England, courtesy of the Malfoy family inheritance, and as Scorpius was a friend of Al's, Rose's mum was sure he'd be happy to help.

The P.S. had said 'please don't tell your father, though, Rose.'

So Rose set off to find Scorpius - though she was still unsure about the situation after what she'd heard James say in his sleep a few months ago. Rose didn't really see Malfoy much, anyway - he was always with Al, planning some kind of prank or doing Merlin-knows-what.

She had found Al doing homework - yes, actually working! - in the common room, and he'd told Rose that Malfoy was at Slytherin quidditch practice, but he should be finished soon. Reluctantly, Rose was now heading down to the quidditch field to hopefully find Malfoy.

Maybe she'd pick up on a few of Slytherin's tactics that Gryffindor would be happy to know about - after all, even though Rose couldn't fly, she was still smart and after years of being forced to watch and eventually enjoy quidditch she'd become a pretty good tactician.


	6. Chapter 5

"Hawkshead attacking formation ... hmm ... goof diversionary tactics," Rose mumbled to herself as she watched the Slytherin quidditch team practice.

She was walking towards the stands from the castle and evaluating the team's tactics. They weren't half bad, really - and they were using their beaters well to get in the way of opposing chasers. She'd have to tell James about that later. Now, however, she had to talk to Malfoy.

She was almost to the stands when the Slytherin captain blew his whistle and the team floated to the ground. After what looked like a traditional after-practice pep talk, the team began walking towards the change rooms.

Rose jogged over to the side of the pitch and called out, "Hey, Malfoy!"

The seeker, looking rather small in comparison to the two burly beaters who were walking beside him, turned and raised his eyebrows at Rose, but changed direction and strolled over to her nether less.

"So, spying on us for your cousin, Wealsey?" He asked, only half-joking.

Rose stopped herself from blushing and replied, "I've heard that your dad has a rather large collection of books and I was wondering if you might ask him if he has a certain book that I'm looking for and if I could perhaps borrow it."

Malfoy stared at her for a second, uncomprehending. "So ... you came all the way from the castle because you want a book?" he leant casually on his broom.

"Well, yeah," Rose replied, unamused. "So?" Malfoy grinned.

Rose didn't like the look of that grin. It looked almost like Al's, and he had got it from James. Good things never came after James smirked.

"How much do you want this book?" He flicked his broom around until it hovered at his side.

"If you can't help me, Malfoy, I can always write to your dad myself. I would have got Al to ask you, but he probably would have forgotten the name anyway, so I'm stuck with you."

Rose had forgotten how infuriating Malfoy could be - then again, it was to be expected of any friend of Al's. Al could be fine when he chose, but the Weasleys and Potters were so close that both Al and James practically thought of Rose as their second sister. And everyone knows how boys treat their sisters.

"So if you're not going to help me, I've got homework to do," she turned to leave. Malfoy leapt onto his broom and swung around in front of Rose.

"Hey, come on, Rose, I was just joking. I'll send an owl to my dad tonight." Rose was so surprised by Malfoy's answer that she barely registered the fact that he had called her by her first name. "That is, if you still want my help..." he lunged for the snitch which had escaped from the pockets of his robes and was looking to fly off into the fading sky. Rose stifled a laugh as he swung around on his broom, off balance, until he hung from his knees facing her upside-down.

"I don't suppose you have a quill and some parchment, do you?" she said, trying to sound calm even though their noses were less than a wandslength from each other. Did he really have a crush on her?

"I regret to say that pen and parchment are not part of my quidditch equipment," he said, stuffing the snitch into his pocket again. Rose sighed and pulled out her wand. Muttering under her breath, she transfigured the snitch, which was flying away again, into an ink pot, and a blade of grass into a quill.

"Hey!" Scorpius protested, nearly slipping from his broom as he caught the falling ink. "We need that snitch!" Rose picked up the grass-green quill, dipped it into the ink and wrote the title and author on Scorpius' other hand, gripping it tightly so he didn't move.

"There you go. Now you won't forget." Scorpius stared blankly at his hand for a second.

"You know, you could have conjured some parchment, too, instead of using my hand," he shook his fingers out. Then, when Rose just smiled at him, he proffered the ink pot. "Now that you've mutilated my hand, could you give us back the snitch?"

Sighing, Rose waved her wand once more and the golden ball appeared once more in Scorpius' hand, it's wings flapping futilely. As if just then realising that he was still upside-down, Scorpius pulled his broom around in a tight loop-the-loop and somehow managed to right himself during the manoeuvre. Rose looked on jealously - she was sure he was showing off on purpose to make her feel bad about her own flying skills.

"Just don't lose it again, Malfoy." she said, sidestepping him and starting up towards the castle.

"Will do, Weasley." he replied, drifting back towards the change rooms. With her back to him, Rose smiled; she'd got what she came for, and had buried the thought that Malfoy like her - if it was true, he would have acted completely differently, she told herself.

Unbeknownst to her, Scorpius stared after her until the snitch buzzed by his ear and he rolled over his broom in an attempt to catch it. As Rose walked away, he watched her auburn hair blowing in the breeze, the snitch flashing the last dregs of sunlight through his clenched fist.


	7. Chapter 6

Rose jumped and narrowly escaped spilling her bottle of ink all over her charms essay as someone tapped her playfully on the head. She turned around sharply to see Al standing behind her with something that looked suspiciously like a packet of Uncle George's Peruvian instant darkness powder.

"Scorp's outside the portrait hole and says he needs to see you." Al told her before dashing up to his dorm. Rose nearly giggled in excitement - he might have the book!

She swished her wand and her work packed itself up neatly in her satchel, which Rose swung over her shoulder. She'd learnt that useful spell from her mum - who used it at home to much effect, especially when it came to Hugo's bombshell of a room. She found Malfoy outside the entrance to the common room, holding a brown package awkwardly in his hands.

"So, my dad sent this," he held out the package to her, and she took it. "Just be careful, cause the pages are ... disintegrating, I think. Anyway," he stared pointedly at her, "it's a valuable book, and my dad'll kill me if I don't return it perfect condition, so don't wreck it, ok?"

Rose smiled and tapped the wrapping with her wand, which slid off smoothly and then vanished. A dusty red book with curly silver and gold lettering lay in her hands - 'The Many Intricacies of Successful Portrait Painting and the Mastery of Painting Animation' by Karacticus Adspargo.

"I'll take care of it." she promised Malfoy whilst stroking the spine in what she hoped was a discreet manner. He leaned against the wall and pointed at the book.

"So, why are you reading about magical portraits, Weasley? Not even extra credit essays are that weird," he smirked, and this time Rose couldn't help herself from blushing. He couldn't possibly know that the charms essay had been extra credit - something no Hogwarts student in their right mind would volunteer for.

"It's - it's a long story," she said lamely. Malfoy pushed himself upright again and took a step towards Rose, who held the book tightly to her chest.

"Come on, Rose, tell me then." When Rose began to protest, he raised his eyebrows and continued, "besides, you owe me for getting you the book in the first place. I must deserve to know," and Rose had to admit he had a point, little as she wanted to tell him. So as they made their way towards the library, Rose reluctantly told Scorpius about Fawkes and her plan.

For a few minutes there he actually seemed bearable, Rose thought. Until he asked, "So could you take stuff out of the paintings, too? Like whatever the drunk monks are drinking in the painting near your common room?" and Rose stared at his with such distaste that he ducked his head - but smirked when he thought she couldn't see.

* * *

They ended up in the library, and Rose sat down to read the book. "You can go now, you know," she told Scorpius. He yawned and settled down in the chair opposite her.

"I know. But Al's at training and I'm tired, so I'm just going to sleep if that's fine with you," and without waiting for a reply Scorpius lay his head on the table and closed his eyes. Rose contemplated shaking him and asking why he thought the library was a good place to catch up on sleep, but decided against it.

He was nicer when he was asleep, Rose noticed, he had this kind of smile on his face that for once wasn't mocking or annoying. So Rose set to work reading 'The Many Intricacies of Successful Portrait Painting and the Mastery of Painting Animation' with Scorpius breathing softly in the background.

* * *

It was dark when Rose finally looked up from her book after reading the last page.

"That's it," she whispered. "Now I can do it." She looked out at the setting sun thoughtfully and began making a few calculations in her head.

"So, you solved it? That was quick," Rose was startled yet again that day by Scorpius, who was looking up at her from his vantage point on the table. She couldn't be sure if he was being sarcastic or not.

"I haven't solved it, as such yet. I just know what spell I need to write, now." Scorpius propped his head up on his hands. "Wait - you can write spells?" he looked incredulously at her, and Rose fought to keep the blood from rushing to her cheeks - and ears, for that matter.

Rose had unfortunately inherited the Weasley gene that caused not just her face but also her ears to glow red when she was furious or embarrassed.

"Of course you can write spells! - how else would we have them today? Wizards and witches in the early times had to experiment and write their own spells if they didn't exist."

Scorpius huffed. "I know - but how ... you can just come up with spells like that?" he stared at her incredulously. Rose stroked the fuzzy edges of the book calmingly in an effort to keep her blood vessels under control.

"Well, most spells come from Latin, so I use a translation volume to find the most suitable incantation, and then it's a matter of experimenting with wand movements," she replied, wondering what it was about Scorpius that made her blush more frequently than she was used to.

"Wow," he said, drawing his wand out from his pocket and twirling it through his spindly fingers. "So anyone could make up their own spell?" She could see his mind going into overdrive - most likely formulating a prank which he could pull of with Al, Rose guessed.

"Not necessarily," she flipped the book open to one of the chapters on the animation spell. "You have to actually be able to do the spell. For example, if you try to write a spell that will make things zoom around in circles, but you can't perform the locomotor charm, you probably won't be able to do your spell, even if you've written it right."

Scorpius tapped his yew wand thoughtfully on the table. "So you know a bit of Latin," he said finally. "Yes..." Rose replied warily. Scorpius grinned at her. "What's the Latin word for 'fold'?"

Rose trawled through her memory, and eventually found the word she was looking for.

"I'd probably say 'plico'," she said, trying to guess what he was thinking. Deftly, Scorpius tore a small piece of parchment off the roll that Rose had been using to take notes, and lay it on the desk in front of him. Swallowing once, he made a little flourish with his wand said, "Plico."

The parchment ruffled a bit at the edges, but nothing else happened. "Try a different wand movement," Rose suggested. This time, Scorpius touched his wand tip to the parchment and drew it up, as if he were drawing a thread up from beneath the table.

"Plico!" they watched as the parchment folded itself up neatly from the edges. Up and up it rolled, flipping over every so often, small tears appearing in the grain as tendrils of parchment wove themselves into folds. When it had stopped moving, the parchment settled itself down onto the table between Scorpius and Rose.

"It's - a rose," she marvelled at the paper creation before her. Scorpius shifted in his seat. "It was harder than I thought it would be - you have to concentrate on every little thing," he said, his eyes dancing between Rose and the flower. "So you can imagine what it's going to be like trying to get a whole phoenix into a portrait," Rose grinned shakily.

Why make a flower, a rose? Scorpius could have picked any other spell - why that? He nodded and held her gaze for a second, them glanced out the window into the starry sky. "I'd better get back to my dorm - it's getting late," he pushed himself up from the chair and stretched his tall, lean figure even further up towards the ceiling. Rose closed the book with a snap. "Yeah, I should probably go too," she swept her things off the desk, and noticed that he'd left the parchment rose there.

"Hey, you forgot this," she called to him, holding it out. Scorpius turned around at the door and replied, "You keep it." Then he was gone with a wink goodbye, leaving Rose standing with the flower cupped in her hand.

* * *

Lying in bed, she stared at the rose, which was settled on the table next to the window. How could it be that just last week, she'd been sure she could write her own spell, get Fawkes into the painting, and that Scorpius certainly didn't like her in that way?

Yet now she was sure of none of those things - although she'd said to him that she knew which spell she had to write, and what it had to do, Rose had no idea how she'd pull it off. It was a hundred times more complex than anything she'd written before, and if she got it wrong - she shuddered to think what would happen to Fawkes. And he had called her by her first name...

* * *

Rose fell asleep staring at the parchment flower.


	8. Chapter 7

Rose sighed deeply as she walked along yet another long corridor, scribbling furiously on a piece of parchment. She was trying to find a suitable painting to test her spell on, but it was proving to be extremely difficult. The thing was, Rose didn't want to try the spell on just any painting; if things went wrong, she might accidentally ruin the painting or even kill its inhabitant.

What she was looking for was a person, or animal, as the case might be, whom had two paintings of themselves in Hogwarts, so that if she did mess up, the subject would have another painting to live in while she fixed the other up.

Rose hadn't been able to think of any double up paintings, so she was stuck roaming the halls of the school, writing down the names of each painting's occupant, and then checking back to see if there were any duplicates. As could be expected, it was taking an extremely long time.

She had just scribbled down the name of an odd knight who was riding a very stout pony - Sir Cadogan, she thought his name was - when she walked, feather-first into no one else but Scorpius.

"Well, hello there," he grinned down at her. Rose wished he wasn't so much taller than her - he was taller than Al definitely, and almost the same height as James. "Um, hi," she stuttered. "What are you doing here?" Rose questioned him, and Scorpius raised an eyebrow at her.

"I might ask you the same question," he replied, and Rose suddenly realised that they were still standing right up against each other. Stepping back, she straightened out her roll of parchment, which was nearly trailing on the floor now.

"As a matter of fact, I'm actually looking for a picture to test my spell on." Scorpius flicked the edge of her list of names. "Picky, are we?" Rose drew her wand and swished it - the parchment rolled up neatly and secured itself so that she could still write, but was now more manageable.

"No, I just don't want to damage any of them," she replied, and explained her conundrum. Scorpius looked thoughtful. "So you need a portrait which has another painting of themselves in Hogwarts who would be willing to help you?" Rose nodded, wondering where this was going. "I might know of a person," he said eventually, "but his portraits are ... in difficult spots for you to get to."

She stared pointedly at him. "Oh, come on, I don't care where he is if it means I can forget about this list!" Rose waved the parchment at him and it rolled out again, pooling at her feet. Scorpius scanned down the impressive compilation of names and whistled. "You must have practically every painting in Hogwarts on there!" She flicked the parchment out of his reach and stuffed it into her bag.

"Except one, obviously," she reminded him. "So are we going, or what?" Scorpius' eyes darted from Rose to her satchel, and finally he said, "Ok - but I need to get something from Al first," and he was off, striding down the corridor towards the Gryffindor common room.

* * *

A few minutes later, the two were waking away from the Fat Lady, Scorpius holding another pile of parchment. Rose was puzzled for a second, and then gasped with realisation. "That's not the Marauder's Map, is it?" Scorpius grinned back at her. "The one and only," he said, and Rose reached for it.

"Can I see? I wonder which charms it has on it - a Detection Charm, obviously, but how to show the data in visual form ... " she trailed off as she felt Scorpius gazing at her. " ... whoops, nerd moment," she muttered to herself. Scorpius smirked at her. "You really like this stuff, don't you?" He winked at her, then pulled his wand out and tapped the map.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good," he said, and almost before he'd finished the last word, ink began flowing across the surface of the parchment in spidery lines. Rose could see herself standing on the staircase with Scorpius, and various other students and teachers milling around the castle. After glancing quickly at the map, Scorpius started down the staircase again. "All clear - let's go."

He beckoned to Rose, and she hurried down after him.

* * *

"Please tell me you're not serious, Malfoy," Rose said, staring at the skulls on the wall of the dungeon. "I can't go into the Slytherin common room!" Scorpius stared at her. "Do you want to test your spell or not, Weasley?" he looked down at the map again.

"No one's in there now - we can go," he stepped forward and said, "Basilisk," and the wall opened up to reveal the Slytherin common room. "Come on," Scorpius walked in and led Rose into a small alcove at the side where a blank picture frame hung.

She felt extremely out of place - the common room was so opposite to her own with its green and silver hangings and overwhelmingly dark atmosphere. "Professor?" Scorpius called into the painting. " ... Yes?" A smooth voice emanated from the empty portrait. "It's Scorpius," Scorpius answered. "I was wondering if I'd be able to talk to you?" There was silence for a few seconds, and then a pale figure with greasy hair and black robes swept into the frame.

Rose stifled a gasp as she recognised the man to be no other than Serverus Snape, former Headmaster of Hogwarts. "Scorpius," Snape said, eyeing Rose. "What is the meaning of this?" Scorpius gulped. " Well, I was hoping that you might be able to help Rose," he gestured to her, and went onto explain their predicament.

"And as you also have a portrait hanging in Professor McGonagall's office, we were hoping you might ... lend us this picture?" Snape surveyed the two students for a few seconds. After what seemed like ages, the Professor replied, "Very well, Scorpius, you may use this portrait." He paused, and Rose held back a smile. "Though don't expect anything else from me." Snape added silkily, and walked promptly out of the painting.

Rose and Scorpius stared at each other for a second, and then Scorpius said, "Well, you get on with your casting, and I'll watch the map." And with that, he slipped around the corner and pulled out the Marauder's Map, while Rose turned to the empty frame.

A few hours later, Rose was sitting in front of the portrait with a quill, her wand and what she hoped was the perfected spell. Taking a deep breath, she lifted her wand and circled it around the quill. "Traicio," Rose said firmly, and flicked her wand tip towards the painting.

Rose held her breath, and when the quill flew up to the painting and seemed to melt into it, she let her breath out in an excited cry. Nervously, she touched the spot where the quill had entered the painting and found that it was smooth - it had really gone into the painting.

Rose turned around to see Scorpius standing behind her. "I did it!" She said, pointing to the painting. Scorpius stared at the quill. "Wow," he said, looking completely blown away. " That's amazing!" Impulsively, Rose stepped forward and hugged him.

"Thanks for convincing Snape," she said, pulling back so she could see him. "No problem," he said, and Rose realised suddenly that they were awfully close. They looked at each other for a second, and suddenly his lips were on hers, and there was no space between them at all.

* * *

Professor Snape walked into his Slytherin portrait to see two very unusual things. Firstly, there was a feather quill on his chair that had definitely not been there before, and secondly, Rose and Scorpius were ... well. The Professor contemplated breaking them apart, but decided against it - after all, he could thank the girl later.

And she might even be able to get some of his potion equipment into the portrait as well.


	9. Chapter 8

Rose focused her concentration on the rat sitting in front of her. She took a deep breath, and for the thirty-eighth time that day, she flicked her wand towards the empty portrait in front of her and the rat sailed into the frame, becoming part of the painting.

Rose had been practicing her charm for nearly a week now, and she'd moved on to the non-verbal version after the first two days. Scorpius had continued to be her lookout - though she suspected that it wasn't the only reason he came, considering that they were kind of ... together now.

That was the best thing about being at a boarding school, Rose decided. It meant that she wouldn't have to tell her dad about Scorpius until the end of term at least, and it could be over by then anyway. She shuddered to think what might have happened if she'd had to tell him that very night.

Rose was still contemplating the sleek black rat as it scampered around the empty frame when she heard a yell from behind her. Quick as a flash, she jerked around to see Scorpius facing a mean-looking Slytherin girl, who raised her wand at Rose upon seeing the Gryffindor crest on her robes. Before Rose could grab her own wand off the ground, though, Scorpius yelled, "Confundus!" and the girl's eyes glazed over.

"Quick," he grabbed Rose by the hand, "she'll snap out of it in a second," Scorpius pulled Rose around the corner into another room and closed the door, bewitching it to lock itself. Upon further scrutiny, Rose found that the room was, in fact, no more than a broom cupboard, and realised that she was backed right up to Scorpius as there was little room for them both with all the cleaning supplies as well.

Heart beating fast, Rose tried to turn around and face Scorpius, but stopped when she nearly unsettled a pile of brooms. "Why didn't you see her coming?" She asked him. "I was distracted," he replied. Rose raised her eyebrows. "You were distracted? By what?" There was silence for a few seconds, and Rose blushed.

They both froze when they heard footsteps outside the door, and when they moved away Rose pointed her wand at the door and whispered, "Muffliato! There, now no one'll be able to hear us," she explained to Scorpius, and when she heard him laugh softly, she blushed even more, glad for the darkness that hid her most certainly red ears.

"So, are you ready yet?" He asked after a few seconds, and Rose sighed. "I guess I am, but I'm scared, Scorpius," she admitted. "I told Fawkes about it the other day and he seemed so happy, even when I told him it might go wrong."

Scorpius draped his arms over hers. "That's good, right? And it's not going to go wrong, Rose - you haven't made a mistake since that second day!" Rose felt herself lean back into him, supported by his sturdy chest. "But what if it does go wrong, Scorp? I'll never forgive myself," she shivered as he brushed her thumb gently.

"You've said it yourself - Fawkes won't ever be happy like he is now, and he's immortal - he'd have to go on unhappy forever. If it works, he'll live happily with Dumbledore for as long as their paintings survive, and if he doesn't, well, at least he won't be alive with his grief any more." Rose twined her fingers with his. "When you put it that way, it sounds okay," she said.

"Of course it does - it's logical. I thought you liked logic." She was sure that he was smiling as he rested his chin on to of her head. " Okay, okay," she relented. "I'll do it whoever you can get us into the Headmistress' office. When is that, anyway?" She asked him. "Probably the day after tomorrow - McGonagall will be down at Hogsmeade with everyone else." Rose breathed out heavily.

"Ok, I'll be ready," she closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around her sides, touching his hips. They stood there for a while, until Scorpius broke the silence. "You know no one can hear us, so I think we're in quite a good position here," he turned Rose around gently to face him. "A good position for what?" She said, just able to make out a small smirk on his face in the shadowy light.

"For this," he said, and brought his mouth down to meet hers.

Rose slid her arms up around his shoulders, and pulled him down further. Scorpius had the uncanny ability to make her forget everything else but him - they were no longer in a broom cupboard in the Slytherin common room, it was just him and her, and his lips on hers.

* * *

It was dark when they finally emerged from the cupboard, smiling goofily and holding hands. Scorpius saw Rose safely up to her dorm and went back down to the dungeons, but not before giving her her such a lengthy kiss goodnight that no one was in doubt as to the fact that Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy were going out.


	10. Chapter 9

"Ok, here we go," Scorpius whispered, and drew the invisibility cloak over himself and Rose. Fawkes was perched on Rose's shoulder, and the three of them were only just concealed by the cloak. Scorpius had the Marauder's Map in one hand and was keeping a lookout for anyone coming their way.

They crept along the corridor, encountering only a few students and the Fat Friar along the way. When they reached the entrance to the Headmistress' office, Scorpius checked the map again and pulled the cloak over his head. Leaning in towards the gargoyles, he said clearly, "Ginger newt," and the stone guards stood aside to let him through.

Scorpius replaced the cloak over himself and he and Rose climbed the stairs up to McGonagall's office. If all went to plan, Dumbledore should be occupied with Snape right now.

They rounded the final curve of the staircase, pushed open the door and walked into the office. There were a few people in their portraits, but Rose was pleased to see that Professor Dumbledore's was empty. They moved slowly towards the empty portrait, taking care not to alert any of the other Headmasters and Headmistresses to their presence.

When they were about a foot from the frame, Rose set Fawkes down gently. "Ok, last chance, Fawkes," she told the phoenix. "Just say if you don't want to do this." But he shook his fiery head in disagreement, and Rose resigned herself to the fact that she would have to perform the spell.

Standing up again, Rose breathed deeply and prepared herself for the charm. Scorpius' hand slid into hers and squeezed her encouragingly. "It's now or never, I guess," she muttered, and raised her wand to point at Fawkes.

"Bye, Fawkes," she whispered, and the phoenix gave a small warble, just one sweet note. It was as if he knew that he might not survive this, and was in total acceptance - but he did know, Rose realised.

Suddenly, her hand was steady, and she felt confident that she could charm Fawkes into the frame. She would do it for him, for Dumbledore, and most importantly for herself - she'd worked so hard on this and she wanted to prove that she could do it.

"Traicio," she breathed, and moved her wand in the now almost instinctive pattern she had created for the spell. Her wand arm dropped to her side as she finished the spell and waited, and Scorpius snake an arm around her waist.

Fawkes' form shimmered before them and rose slowly up towards the portrait. Rose's breath caught in her mouth; she couldn't blink, couldn't even think as she waited and hoped. And then, before she even realised it, the phoenix was in the painting, flapping about and singing the most beautiful song Rose had ever heard.

All around her, portraits woke up or ran into their frames, anxious to see what the sound was - surely it couldn't be? they thought - but it was. Rose buried her face in Scorpius' shoulder and cried tears of utter relief. He stoked her hair and said, "Hey, you did it," he whispered. "You did it."

After a few minutes, Rose regained herself and the pair went to move towards the door, but Scorpius stopped her.

"Look," he said, pointing to a golden shape on the ground. Rose picked it up and gasped. "But it can't be!" She exclaimed. "It's a phoenix egg!" Scorpius reached forward to touch it's glossy surface. "I didn't know that they existed," he frowned. "That's it - they don't," Rose replied, awestruck. "But to enter the painting, I guess any living thing has to sort of die - and as phoenixes can't die, Fawkes left his, well, life source, I guess, here." Rose stepped up to the frame again, and she could here footsteps from inside it - Dumbledore must be coming.

"Thank you, Fawkes," she whispered, and the phoenix crooned at her. 'Thank you,' he seemed to say. Then Rose saw a flash of purple robes and she rushed towards the door with Scorpius under the cover of the cloak.

Just before they slipped out the door, Rose turned around to see the former Headmaster and his beloved companion together, and she would have sworn that she saw Dumbledore tear his wondrous gaze from Fawkes and wink in her direction.


	11. Chapter 10

Things had been going along as usual at Hogwarts. Students had been heaped with homework for the coming weeks, two Gryffindors, a Slytherin and a Hufflepuff were in the hospital wing recovering from firework-induced burns, and Peeves had taken to water-bombing students between classes yet again.

Though some things were quite different; Slytherin had scraped a win over Gryffindor when Scorpius saved the day by catching the snitch and bringing the scores to 170-160, much to James' frustration (Rose had been torn between whether to be happy or annoyed over her house's defeat, but settled on a congratulatory kiss for Scorpius).

Rose and Scorpius were still dating, though Ron was yet to be informed (for the first time ever, Rose was dreading the holidays because she'd have to tell her dad), and Lily was now in possession of the invisibility cloak for the first time.

The strangest thing of all, though, was the fact that Fawkes' son, whom they had named Felix, was now Rose's constant companion. At first, teachers had tried to get Felix to leave the classroom, but he was stubborn and would not budge from his perch on Rose's shoulder. Because of his love for this spot, she'd had to add dragon hide padding to the shoulders of her robes and make another portable one she could wear with her other clothes.

So Felix became a common sight in Rose's classes, and soon he was a firm part of the student population, very sociable and often breaking out into popular songs during breaks. He'd also been quite useful for heading off any people who Rose disliked - especially for keeping James in line.

* * *

Even with all this excitement, however, Rose found herself bored without a project like the one with Fawkes, and she told Scorpius so one afternoon while they were sitting by the lake.

"Only you, Rose," he shook his head, smiling. "Anyone else would be stressed in their OWL year - not you." Rose rested her head on his shoulder and began swishing her wand randomly, forming patterns of sparks in the air.

"I need a mystery, Scorp," she sighed. "Surely Hogwarts has a few more? After all, plenty happened in our parents' time," she reasoned. "Well, in our parents' time, Voldemort was still at large," Scorpius reminded her playfully. "Do you want me to find another Dark Lord for you to defeat?" He joked, and Rose poked him in the side gently. "No, you know I don't want that," she flourished her wand and silvery strands snaked out from the tip. "I want a mystery, no, mysteries to solve."

Scorpius looked thoughtful. "We could put posters up and see who applied," he mused. "'Rose Weasley, resident detective. Free investigation. Most interesting cases selected. Apply to Scorpius Malfoy, Slytherin common room.'" Rose giggled. The silver wisps extending from her wand began to form a more coherent shape.

"That's not bad," she said. "I mean, I'll be the inspector and you can be my sidekick! What have we got to lose, anyway?" Scorpius raised an eyebrow at her. "What about our sanity? Imagine all the 'is my boyfriend cheating on me?' applications we'll get!" And his expression was so cute that Rose couldn't help but lean in and kiss him.

It was so late when they finally got to the castle that the feast was almost over.


End file.
